I think our culture has evolved this as a defence against shills. If positive low-content comments ("I just had a great experience with x") were an accepted and normal thing to post, pretty soon we'd fill up with astroturfers. If you're posting in support of something, you have to go into depth about what made it good.<p>I think this is good; HN is optimized for signal/noise even at the cost of missing out on some content. It would be better to have a culture that frowned on shallow criticisms (“Why don’t you have X, Y, or Z?” and “Why would you waste your time on that? 12 things like that already exist!”, as the article puts it).<p>Above all HN (to me) is the antitwitter; it's a place for serious, in-depth discussion. I wonder whether a minimum of 161 characters would lead to better posts.
People tend to feel more strongly about things they dislike than things they like. When things work, they tend to drift past without being noticed. Think about the things that provoke reliable positive comment - they often are in scenarios where a negative experience is expected.<p>Consider Apple. Why do people love the brand and products so much and are so willing to discuss it? Perhaps because their expectation of those fields is so low and Apple surpasses it. Compare a normal retail stores with an Apple store. Compare a pre-iPhone with an iPhone. Compare a Mac with a PC. Apple have consciously taken negative customer experiences and made them positive. And as such they get extensive positive comment.
Well, this article is doing what: telling us what he doesn't like. He doesn't like too much criticism.<p>Personally, I like honesty. As in honest opinions.<p>But... the source matters. To be criticised by a fool means nothing. To be criticised by someone who has good taste is different. It may be hurt but it's extremely valuable.<p>Without criticism, you simply cannot improve. I guess there are some people who do not want to improve. They just want things to stay as they are.
This is pure speculation, but I wonder if only providing an upvote button discourages positive comments, leaving only negative ones left to actually be posted. The purpose of the upvote is intended to mean "I support this contribution to the discussion", but is too often simply used as an "agreed" vote. There have been plenty of other related comment thread discussions along these lines as well.